This
past week I received a note from a reader in response to my article published
in the October 2015 Evangelical missions
Quarterly. Miguel writes,
“I
enjoyed your article on EMQ (How Teams Work: A case Study in Senegal, West
Africa), and I was impressed for the way you concluded on regard of the
different level of involvement of the members. I am currently writing a book on
high-impact teams (in Spanish) and I have a question: How different
layers/tiers provide members to next levels? How members increase the
involvement and get access to the next level?”
My
answer below,
“Thanks for the note and reading the article. As to your
questions, the article points out that there are no "steps" in levels
of role or leadership. The Beersheba Project team is egalitarian with limited leadership
roles. As a football team works in tandem for the completion of the goal,
so, too, does the Senegal team. Each member of the BP team work within
their areas of giftedness which contributes to the overall goal of reaching their
community with the Gospel as well as strengthening the local church. It is
because of this structure that makes the Senegal team unique.”
Using sports teams as a metaphor, be it basketball, football or
baseball, the only thing that members “compete” for is to be a part of the
team. The left tackle doesn’t aspire to
be a tight end; the forward does not aspire to be a guard.
Too many times in business, missions and the local church, the
ambition to get to the next level of leadership hinders the stated goal. Structure is important, but a team that wins
is when everyone is playing to the best of their ability in their position and
giftedness.
